I'll call upon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know. KING CLAUDIUS Thanks, dear my lord.
Exit POLONIUS
O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, A brother's murder. Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will:
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect. What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy But to confront the visage of offence?
And what's in prayer but this two-fold force, To be forestalled ere we come to fall, Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd Of those effects for which I did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;There is no shuffling, there the action lies In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free, Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
All may be well.
Retires and kneels Enter HAMLET HAMLET Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread;With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought, 'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No!
Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;At gaming, swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in't;Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, And that his soul may be as damn'd and black As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
Exit KING CLAUDIUS [Rising] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Exit SCENE IV. The Queen's closet. Enter QUEEN MARGARET and POLONIUS LORD POLONIUS He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him. HAMLET [Within] Mother, mother, mother! QUEEN GERTRUDE I'll warrant you, Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.
POLONIUS hides behind the arras Enter HAMLET HAMLET Now, mother, what's the matter? QUEEN GERTRUDE Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. HAMLET Mother, you have my father much offended. QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. HAMLET Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. QUEEN GERTRUDE Why, how now, Hamlet! HAMLET What's the matter now? QUEEN GERTRUDE Have you forgot me? HAMLET No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;And--would it were not so!--you are my mother. QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. HAMLET Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;You go not till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. QUEEN GERTRUDE What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho! LORD POLONIUS [Behind] What, ho! help, help, help! HAMLET [Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Makes a pass through the arras LORD POLONIUS [Behind] O, I am slain!
Falls and dies QUEEN GERTRUDE O me, what hast thou done? HAMLET Nay, I know not:
Is it the king? QUEEN GERTRUDE O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! HAMLET A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. QUEEN GERTRUDE As kill a king! HAMLET Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUSThou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down, And let me wring your heart; for so I shall, If it be made of penetrable stuff, If damned custom have not brass'd it so That it is proof and bulwark against sense. QUEEN GERTRUDE What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me? HAMLET Such an act That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed As from the body of contraction plucks The very soul, and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass, With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act. QUEEN GERTRUDE Ay me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index? HAMLET Look here, upon this picture, and on this, The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;A station like the herald Mercury New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;A combination and a form indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear, Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
